About The Studios
For more than 100 years, a unique collection of musicians, painters, sculptors, actors, drama coaches, photographers, architects, educators and related professionals have occupied the studios above Carnegie Hall as part of Andrew Carnegie's mandate to house a comprehensive creative community. The Studio Tower Artists is the group of artists and residents who occupy the studio towers of Carnegie Hall, who, along with concerned members of the artistic community and the citizens of New York share the goal of preserving this unique resource.

What are the Studio Towers of Carnegie Hall?

The Studio Towers of Carnegie Hall include a 15-story tower on 57th Street, a 12-story tower on 56th Street and studios directly above the music hall. The Towers were designed by renowned architect Henry J. Hardenberg (architect of the Dakota Apartments and the Plaza Hotel), hatched from a joint plan of the The Art Students League and Andrew Carnegie; the Towers contain studios especially created for music rehearsal, dance, and small performing stages. Many contain small duplexes that were created with special skylights and windows to provide natural northern light for painters (many of whom have taught and continue to teach at The Art Students League) and photographers. There are approximately 170 studios, no two of which are alike, constructed between 1894 and 1897. 

To quote the late Isaac Stern former Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall
“Isadora Duncan lived and rehearsed new dance works here. Enrico Caruso made his first recording in studio 826. Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille studied and dreamed here…“Today, these traditions are carried forward by more than 300,000 young people and adults who received instruction in the arts in Carnegie Hall studios each year. Their presence in the same building where the finest musical performances are heard adds immeasurably to the unique creative ferment one feels about this national cultural landmark. “Carnegie Hall is a crucible of democratic creativity…bringing together all that is best in America’s myriad ethnic and cultural strains…proving that we have built not just a nation but a civilization.”~Isaac Stern






Before (Above) After (Directly Below)